Lisette

Chapter 27 ~ Do You See, in the Times in Which We Live, When We Have No Dowry...

The following day being a Thursday, Grantaire came and found me in the morning to go and practice with the singlesticks again. Bahorel didn't join us on our way out to the usual wasteground, but both Gavroche and Navet ran into us as we passed the Boulevarde du Temple, and decided come along. Bahorel's absence didn't worry me overmuch: he wasn't one to stick to any kind of routine.

"Courfeyrac said you were coming to the ball at Sceaux on Sunday?" Grantaire half asked, as we walked along. 

"Yes, though I haven't danced in years. I can remember bits and pieces, but I'm by no means up to date with the fashionable dances!"

"Well, you'd be alright with anything in a longways set - just make sure you start near the bottom, and pay attention to what the top couples are doing. And if you're to dance a quadrille, you'd just have to make sure you're one of the side couples, so you can watch it danced through once first."

"Yes, though I'm not sure watching a dance once through will really cause it to stick in my memory. Especially if we're dancing it as a chain - 6 dances all in a row with no break... I'm bound to get mixed up and trip up either myself or someone else!"

"You'll be fine! We can always forget the singlesticks and do some dance practice instead, if you like?"

"That would be useful. I know I don't have to dance every dance, but I'm just dreading being asked to dance a Cotillion, or Rigaudon, or something, and not having a clue. It's not like you can watch first before joining in with those ones!"

"Rigaudon's fun - I can teach you one that Musichetta and Joly know, so should it come up, the four of us can dance it together. And there's a Spanish waltz and a gigue that are both good fun - they involve swapping partners, but I can teach you those ones too. With Gavroche and Navet, I'm sure we can practise some of the quadrilles, too."

Having arrived at the wasteground, all thoughts of self defence were forgotten. Grantaire's explanations of some of the steps to the dances on the way there were turned into practising them properly, with Gavroche and Navet going from reluctant to joining in with enthusiasm. With the steps to the quadrilles - La Fantasie, Chiverian, La Dame Blanche, and more - written down in my notebook, along with Les Lanciers, as being more of an exercise of memory than having hugely difficult steps, we concentrated on the more difficult, hopping steps of Rigaudon. Holding my skirts up so I could see my feet, I tried desperately to copy Grantaire's movements while not tripping myself over or causing the two small boys to laugh at me too much. Even with him singing the steps at me, that one dance took up most of the rest of the morning.

 Cotillions were completely ignored, on the basis that they were falling out of favour, while some of the older folk dances - simple waltzes, bourées, stately gavottes, livelier branles, and the gigue that Grantaire had mentioned - were practised on the basis that they were still astonishingly popular. After all, one of the defining aspects of the ball at Sceaux was the fact that it was open to all levels of society, and so all manner of dances would have to be provided so that everyone would be able to dance something.

After a very late lunch, Navet disappeared while Gavroche came out to the wasteground with us, where we alternated between unarmed self defence and some of the more complex dances for most of the rest of the afternoon. With the day wearing on, Gavroche insisted that we head back into the city by a different route, since he had met a Pure-finder who was willing to speak with me. Pure is a slang word for dog muck, much valued by tanners for its use in bating, or softening, the dehaired skins. The quarter he led us to was utterly dismal, and we entered a little court with about half-a-dozen houses, consisting of merely two rooms, one over the other. Here in one of the upper rooms (the lower one of the same house being occupied by another family and according to Gavroche filled with little ragged children), we met the old woman, who he had run into yesterday, and arranged for us to come and visit her this evening.